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Top Hearst Corp. entertainment executive Scott Sassa has exited the company, Deadline has confirmed. The news is not entirely surprising as Sassa has been known for his living-on-the-edge lifestyle that clashed with the rather conservative top Hearst brass. Still, the circumstances of his departure are bizarre. There have been unconfirmed reports of inappropriate behavior. At Hearst, Sassa oversaw the company’s interests in ESPN, Lifetime and other networks including the History Channel. He brought Mark Burnett to the fold (Hearst owns 50% of Mark Burnett Prods.), and serves as a producer on Burnett’s blockbuster History miniseries The Bible. Prior to Hearst, Sassa was the top West Coast executive at NBC and also worked at Turner Entertainment and Fox Broadcasting Co. His Facebook page lists him as former president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication.
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The poor guy is a victim of criminal extortion and then he gets hung out to dry? This sounds wrong
Is sending sexually explicit texts to a consenting adult illegal?
Extortion sure is. Was he revealing company secrets? If not, not sure why he is being pushed out for the actions of criminals (alleged.)
Disappointing that the blackmailers succeeded in their threat. Give us money or we’ll ruin you. He refused to cave in to them, and they still got him fired.
I am confused. Scott Sassa did nothing wrong…at least not by this Article’s Admission. Why was he forced to resign? What did he do wrong/illegal/immoral/unprofessional?
That sounds terribly unfair. He refused to be blackmailed after being set up by a con and he still loses his job..I guess there may be more to the story?
You made one of the smartest comments…there actually is a LOT more to the story than what’s portrayed in the media. The company was just in firing him. No one should feel sorry for Sassa, he caused his own downfall.
So why should Sassy Sassa have to resign over this? He was a victim and if he’s married only his wife should be angry at him. This is ridiculous it’s not the 1950′s are we this old fashioned now? He’s not a Senator or a Congressman he’s an executive.
sex
Why is this even an issue? He’s not an elected official. It’s a private matter. Has nothing to do with his work, unless he offered the stripper a job at the company, etc.
I don’t understand. Why does a thing like this result in losing your job? It’s his personal life and it was brought to his workplace not by him but by someone extorting him, defaming him on purpose. Why does Hearst turn around and fire him? This makes no sense to me.
This seems absurd. Sassa, by all reports, is a good executive. The victim of a crime, blackmail, is forced to lose his job? Why isn’t this a criminal matter to be investigated by the police or FBI?
Sassa may not have engaged in the best decision making in his personal life but nowhere have I read about him being a poor executive.
Couldnt happen to a bigger prick. Congrats Scott!
I agree with “Mark”. This seems absurd. Kudos to Sassa that he had the gumption to fall on his own sword when so many execs bluster their way through and hang on to their jobs by their fingernails no matter what the disgrace is.
Those better be some pretty racy electronic exchanges, though. In a day when an actress can “accidentally” tweet her naked bathroom shot to make her IMDB Starometer rise with no repercussions, other than having the police prosecute the unholy duo for extortion, there likely should have been no other fallout on this.
I hope Sassa bounces back. I’m certain he will.
Unless there were pix of him drugging it up and/or an antiquated morals clause in his contract, I’m not sure he should have been canned as he was the apparent victim. There is a piece of the puzzle missing here.
So Sassa’s personal lifestyle clashed with the conservative Hearst brass? Wonder what they would have done to William Randolph Hearst had they found out about Marion Davies.
Everyone who actually knew William Randolph Hearst knew about Marion Davies. He didn’t try to hide it, but rather was so powerful that nobody reported about it in the press, even though he was stilled married while he lived with her.
LOL
Got to know Scott briefly years ago at Turner Pictures. A really geniune guy – quickly got to know all of the assistant’s names throughout the whole floor, and was generally friendly and humble. I hope he lands on his feet.
Great, so if my ex wants to get me fired, all she has to do is forward the photos she sexted me, on my private phone, after work hours, to my boss? That sounds fair.
Looks like Sassa is doing some posting above.
Dear Wow:
It is not Scott Sassa posting, but perhaps people that have worked with him in the past and know he is great to work with, who hate to see extortionists win, who hate to see someone who stands up to extortionists lose, and who hates to see someone’s career affected by noncriminal behavior unrelated to the job.
Who is Scott Sassa? And why do I care?
If every executive in Hollywood were fired for engaging with a stripper then there would be no exultives left!
Maybe he had a morals clause in his contract and they wanted him out anyways, but if not that, I don’t see why he got forced out. Nothing illegal in what he did. Poor judgement, sure, a little skeevy, ok, really really bad luck, definitely, but no reason to fire the guy and definitely no reason to let the press have the whole story.
The “explanation” I saw in another article is that Hearst is a very ethical company. Except that this does not seem ethical at all. He’s a single man, engaging in sexual activity with a consenting partner, in a way that as far as we’ve heard did not involve his employer’s business.
Unless there’s more to come out, I’d imagine that business talent with choices would choose another employer knowing this is the level of support they can expect.
A company named Hearst should not really be touting ethics.
He did nothing wrong…
The police and the FBI need to investigate and send these extortionists to jail!!!!
What a weird story … This sounds very unfair.
Let’s be realistic. Companies cover-up far worse things from senior execs all the time. If they fired him over this they were looking for an excuse. Stop trying to see fairness or logic in it — it was a pretense. Who here doesn’t work for a company where you know execs who have gotten away with far more inappropriate stuff that should truly be fireable offenses?
Little known fact: Sassa ran Uber.com before it was a car service.
(it all comes together)